Yes, a Volcano.

The weather in London is finally gorgeous! What could be wrong with the world? Well, a volcano could erupt in Iceland and a cloud of volcanic ash could hover above all European airspace. Yes, a volcano. As I write this all airports in the UK are closed, including Heathrow the world's busiest airport. Apparently this catastrophe could carry on for weeks, that is of course if the sister volcano doesn't erupt- in which case catastrophe would quickly escalate to armageddon. Let's just keep our fingers crossed that this ash doesn't make planes engines explode and me mum can arrive here safely on Friday- let's also hope fucking Eurostar (train through the chunnel) prices fall so we can actually get to Paris. Supply and demand. I know it makes the world go round, but it continually fucks me. Anyway, this volcano has me constantly researching... and avoiding my final papers. Much like I am doing writing this blog!

On to other things! It's finals week! I officially have four days left in my four years. This Thursday marks my last college class. AH! Really not ready for that. But, alas, it will come and I worked hard to get out in four years. Why did I do that? I have no clue. Stay in school. Don't do drugs.

My half birthday is on 4/20. I realized this yesterday. It has taken me 22 years to put this together. I'm a little ashamed of myself too, so don't worry, you are not alone.

Alright, on to a quick recap of my ponytreking weekend! Great girls weekend in the countryside of Wales. Gorgeous! The bed and breakfast was huge, beautiful, and served us breakfast and dinner. How could I not be happy? Also, the trip was a great bonding experiences and... hilarious. These are ponies we are riding, not horses. My pony was roughly the size of a donkey, and named Hector. Should I be insulted at the ethnic profiling being carried out at Parc-le-Breos?? Also, my horse (the first day- Favour, that little bitch) decided it would be fun to roll in the sand... while I was riding her down the beach. She just dropped to the ground with me on her! TWICE. The second time Flavour Fav, the little bitch that she is, caused mass chaos by almost crushing me, causing one of our leaders to freak out, sending other horses sprinting towards the hills, causing two of my friends to throw themselves off their horses. Looking back, it's quite funny. At the time, scary... and a little funny. Oh, and my roommate had fallen off only an hour earlier. Rough first day. Worst ride in Parc-le-Breos history in fact. We like to make a name for ourselves. On Wisconsin!

Ok, this blog has to be cut short. I should really be studying for my finals tomorrow. Granted I've had all day, but I chose to spend it getting sunburned in Hyde Park. I am content in my decision making.

*All photos are from my trip to Wales*

Get it Cambridge!

Alright, so the average temperature here is 45 degrees and rainy. Average temperature Yuba, Wisconsin, 70 degrees and sunny. Mother nature is an evil bitch. But! on to more important matters!

Bath! Beautiful little town about 2 and half hours outside London, emphasis on the beautiful. Every building is made of this yellow stone that makes the whole place look sunny, even though it poured down rain for a majority of our time there. We took a tour of the ancient Roman bath houses, which were unbelievable. The whole idea actually grosses me out, but to see it and walk on 2000 year old stone floors and see the water steaming out from the earth was an amazing experience. They advised us not to touch the water so as to eliminate the chances of contracting nasty bacteria, but of course hardly anyone listened. Did I listen? Of course I did! Recall the incident with the Blarney stone- I'm not an idiot. I also sanitized my hands and everything my flatmates touched. Hygiene is not a joke people.

We then ate lunch at Sally Lunn's, which is the oldest house in Bath and home to the famous Sally Lunn Bun. What is a Sally Lunn bun you ask? It's a lot like sourdough bread. Made a great bacon and cheddar sandwich and goes quite well with the house blend hot tea... in case you happen to venture there.

Things have been interesting within the flats. Besides the water going out, the power randomly flicking off and on, and some dodgey guy robbing the third floor (he just stole some cash from purses and wallets- oddly enough most of these people were home when this happened... no judgements, I'm just saying), the flatmates have lost their damn minds. We all went to this great place down in Leiscester Square the other night called O'Neil's and had a hell of a time. We danced all night- this guy in my program kept buying me drinks. I'm pretty sure it is his mission to hook up with every girl here, which is disgusting, but who am I to refuse a free drink? I was raised better than that. Plus, I may or may not have been milking this situation since Barcelona. Drinks are expensive. Stop judging me. You'd all do it too. Anyway, everyone had a great night. Great nights should just be left alone, never try to repeat them. But, alas, two nights later they tried. Lucky for me, I ended up taking one of our friends home because I am just an amazingly sweet person (which I will emphasize even more later). Unfortunately, the others got absolutely pissed, in the drunk sense not angry, and my little flat family became an incestuous mess. Everyone was making out and grinding on one another- in the club, on the street, riding the bus! The stories and awkward looks in classes the next day were phenomenal- especially because I wasn't in them! Oh I love other people's poor decisions. It's like having an ugly friend to make yourself look better. And it works.

Now for the real drama. One of my flatmates had been sick for about a week- really sick. So the other day she is in the kitchen trying to make herself some soup when she passes out and hits her head on the counter! One of the guys was in there with her and helped her up and asked if she was ok. She wasn't. She passed out two more times on the way to her room. There are four of us home. We freaked out. After calling one of our directors, we took her to the hospital. Oh the National Healthcare System! We waited maybe a half hour before someone saw her and hooked her up to an IV for some fluids. The two guys I was with are both insanely rich and thus were very angry and critical of the way NHS runs. It's amazing. There is a reason the rest of post-industrial world has socialized healthcare. Although most of the people in my program do not like this part of the story. Conservatives confuse me. Then again, they have all had insurance their whole lives, unlike yours truly who was insuranceless for the last six months until the healthcare bill passed. That however is another story, well rant. One I would love to debate- please feel free. Anyway, they admitted her for the night and she is as good as new! She was severely dehydrated and needed 8 bags of fluids (so she told me). Then she was discharged and left, free of charge. FREE. That's all I'm saying...

Ok, so next up is the Oxford v. Cambridge boat race! I've never really been into crew, but it's a huge deal here, so a bunch of us girls went down to Hammersmith Bridge to watch the race and catch us an Ivy Leaguer. We arrived to find a billion people lining the riverbank drinking, grilling out, and having a great time. Day drinking- there are no words. To make it even better, Cambridge and Oxford both have rowers from Wisconsin! Go Badgers! I was rooting for Cambridge, seeing as they had just one guy from Wisconsin I felt like he needed my support (Oxford had two). Of course there was a wager, which always makes things more interesting. Get it Cambridge!

Later that same day, just as I was beginning to sober up from the day's activities, my friend Caitlin invites me to go out to East London with her cousin and brother who are in town visiting. How could I say no? Well, I probably could have I just didn't want to. So we pre-gamed here a bit and headed out east. East London is a different world from Kensington. We partied with the commoners that night. Actually we partied with three Swedes. It was a bazaar night, full of tequila. Quality friendships were formed.

Happy to be in East London! We were even happier to make it out of East London.

So that brings us to Easter morning. Yes, this all happened the Saturday before. I went to bed at 5 and still managed to wake up at 8 for Easter mass. We went to the Brompton Observatory, which is gorgeous. Mass was short and less than inspiring, but the children's choir was amazing! After mass my little group went out to a girl's Easter brunch at this nice restaurant across the street from Harrods. It was a lovely Easter considering we were all away from our families.

Next weekend is horseback riding in Wales!

Dancing with Men in Kilts

Alright, so first off I am going to have to abstain from my usual rant about the horrible weather, since spring has finally arrived in Londontown! It is gorgeous. Although, I am told it is equally as gorgeous, if not more so, back home... I am less than thrilled about such news

Anyway, much to discuss, so little time. Seeing as I currently have a million things to do- yes I actually have homework while studying abroad- this blog will be the abridge version of all of my adventures.

First let me discuss the three plays that I have seen since my last entry. All three were great. The first two were very weird, but extremely well done. The subject matters were a little intense, but great performances. The last was a play called Ghost Stories, which was meant to be a scary night at the theatre. Yes, I was skeptical as well. However, let me just tell you that it too was extremely well done and successfully scared the shit out of me! I was more scared at this play than any movie I've ever seen. In fact, I'm still a little freaked out.

Now on to the real interesting part... Ireland! Yes lads and lassies I visited the land of the gingers... although, disappointedly saw very few gingers. I went with one other girl and we had a great, relaxing time. Two nights in Dublin, where we not only met some Brits there for a bachelor party (the guy getting married was hitting on us with intensity, and ironically enough had the words TRUST and LOYALTY tattooed on his arms- classy) and we also danced with men in kilts! The Ireland and Scotland rugby match was that weekend and Dublin was packed! Luckily, I did not embarrass myself in yet another country- be proud. Saturday morning we flew to the little town of Cork and visited the Blarney Castle and I kissed the famous Blarney Stone! Apparently I will now have the gift of gab. It was a difficult task, considering my phobia of germs, but I overcame my fears and bent over backwards (literally) for the experience. As a reward, I am now sick. Fuck germs. I'm done. Make me a bubble. But, the weather was beautiful and I had a great time so I am going to stop complaining now.

Alright, so that is the brief overview of what I have been doing. Writing this blog is becoming harder and harder now that time is running out. I still have so much I want to see and do, while now having tons of papers and work to do, and wanting to spend some more quality time with my flatmates.

This weekend we are visiting Bath and I am doing homework. Should be 50% exciting.

Eurotrip

I'm back in the UK after a long 10 day spring break to continental Europe! Feels so good to be back in London and... wait for it... it hasn't rained yet!! I know, I just jinxed it. Damnit. Oh well. I will now try to sum up my adventure...

So this journey for me started with Amsterdam. If you've never been, I highly suggest going. I will accompany you. My hostel was called the Flying Pig Uptown and it was amazing. The most perfect location, in my opinion. My two friends and I stayed in a ten bed room, which at the time i thought was a lot of people, however, part two of my journey proved otherwise. Anyway, the city is beautiful, the weather sucked! It was worse there than in London! I'm like fucking Charlie Brown. There were some breaks in the rain though, and there was always a lovely little coffeeshop to get dry in... and high in. For those who didn't know, coffeeshops are where you can purchase and smoke marijuana and cafes are like bars. We went to 8 different shops while we were there... assume what you would like.

The Heinekin Factory tour was probably my favorite part of this trip. It was like when I went to Robot World in second grade, except I got a better treat at the end. Throughout the whole tour there are all sorts of interactive little stations and a little ride... and then you get two drinks. Except some nice gentleman and his family had two extra bracelets so I actually have four drinks at 11 in the morning. It was a tremendous way to start the first full day!

I also went to the Van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank house. The museum was very cool, but huge and by the third floor I was definitely ready to leave. The Anne Frank house was just terribly sad and depressing, but very interesting to see. I couldn't believe how big and small it was at the same time. Hard to explain, but see it. After I left I felt bad that I hated that book.

Amsterdam went off without a hitch and we were off to meet three more friends in Barcelona! That is where shit hit the fan. Well, not really. Nothing bad happened to me. In fact, I had a great time! We ate paella (so good, but the shrimp still had heads and legs and was gross looking, which I easily could have gotten past but it was just so damn difficult to get out of the shell and I don't like having to work that hard for my food), and saw a flamenco show, I embarrassed myself at a club, but that is pretty standard.

Oh, we went to this cool shots bar (only served shots) and became great friends with the bartender Yolanda. She gave us way too many free shots. Haha.. there was a shot called Elena so of course I had three and then forced the guys from our program (who also happened to be in Barcelona) to take one as well. I may or may not have said things referring to how delicious I am. Surprised? I told you, embarrassing. They were really good though. Anyway, the bad things that happened. Well for starters we are pretty sure that the night of the shots bar one of the girls with us got so drunk she pissed on the floor of our hostel and my other friends stepped in it and some of their clothes were soaked. However, we didn't have time to ask her since she woke up the next day and booked a flight home. Crazy? Yes. Luckily, I was on the top bunk (there were 24 beds in our room by the way, it reaked of Europeans most of the time) and could see that the floor was wet and stayed pee-free. We went to the Picasso museum which was awesome! Way better than VanGogh actually, and I really liked VanGoh. We also wandered by the marina and the beach took in some sights. The cathedral was amazing and I took the lift up to the roof and saw the whole city. Best 2.50 euro I could have spent!

And then... the very next day, my friend got her purse stolen. It was a dumb mistake. It also sufficiently put an end to all things fun. Luckily this was the day before we left. The day we actually left was worse, for me anyway. First, we were idiots and walked all over the city trying to find this bus station to take us to the airport. I must have asked 10 different people, all giving me different answers. My Spanish is not good, but was better than anyone elses so I was forced to talk to people. I don't like people. Anyway, we were told we can take a train so we ventured to the train station. Then the little man told me there was no train to the airport, we would have to take a bus. UGH! Well, I asked him where it was and then asked if he could point it out on the map. He takes my map, unfolds one of the flaps, that we failed to unfold, and circles this big icon that says Bus Station to Girona Airport. We are idiots. I know. So we ran to catch a bus, since we were pretty sure we would miss our flight at this point. On the way, some guys throw stuff on my friends in attempt to distract them and steal their stuff, but luckily we knew that trick from talking to some club promoters who became our friends the night before (this is right after my friend almost started a fight with some junkies. Yes, it happened. Luckily we didn't throw down, although I was pretty sure we were going to have to). Anyway.. ADD sorry, we make it to the bus station. We make it to the airport. We get on our flight. We take off. We turn around for an emergency landing because something is wrong with the plane!!!!! Terrifying experience. After a lot of sitting and almost taking off again we deboard and got on a new plane, thank God. We got back to London four hours later than we were supposed to, but I was just happy to be back and alive.

And now... back to my terribly tough academics in London. Damn, my life is rough.

Pitchers, Catchers, and Injured Players

Pitchers, catchers, and injured players began reporting for spring training today! Or yesterday. I'm not sure. The Sox don't report until the 21st, and really, that's what is important. In honor of this holy day, I thought I might catch up! (Not my finest work, I'm aware, but I really didn't have anywhere else to go with it besides some kind of overused homosexual reference, and frankly, I'm better than that.)

Let's start with last night, shall we? Well yesterday was Ash Wednesday, a holy day of obligation. So, being the good Catholic girl that I am, I went to mass... at a Protestant church. That last part was an accident, but as it turned out, a rather eye-opening experience. I'm sure most people are aware that the Church of England was created when King Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic church in order to divorce Queen Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn. As it turns out, it's all very much the same. I'm not sure if it was the religion itself, or the fact that I attended service in an ancient church, but it was much like I imagined mass to be like in 1540- except in English (I imagine Latin was still being used then, but I have no factual basis for that assumption). There was a choir that at first, I'll admit, freaked me out. By the end however, I was expecting some little kid to bust out in Prince's When Dove's Cry. In all, it was cool to see, but I will be attending Catholic mass for the rest of Lent.

Not related to my posts, but just a pretty picture I took while touring the other side of the river with theatre class- next time we get to see the prostitutes graveyard. He's a weird chap. I like him.

Earlier in the week I went to yet another play. This one was entitled Ghosts. Absolute rubbish. I love going to the theatre, and even I fell asleep in the first act. The lead male was actually very attractive, and yet, even he was not enough to keep my attention. Don't see it; it's really not worth the almost THREE hours you will squander away. Watching the entire series of Weeds would be much more productive.

I've been watching Weeds.

What else have I done? I've been trying to keep it pretty low key lately- and succeeding for the most part. I have a new favorite local pub to replace Glouscester Arms, it is called Goat Tavern. Great fish and chips, friendly bartender from Philly.

The Phillies signed Jose Contreras who went 6-13 with a 4.92 ERA last season with the White Sox and Rockies.

Played quarters.. well 10 pence, with a pint glass. Second try. Yes, I am amazing. Caroline was not happy.

This past weekend a few of us went to the UK premiere of Valentine's Day to watch the celebs walk the red carpet. People are fucking crazy. Celebrities make normal everyday citizens bat shit crazy. Interesting experience to say the least. The following day we actually went to see the film. It's no Love Actually. The theatre was badass though, I will go again... but not until Wednesday when its buy one, get one.

I haven't written in such a long time, I'm sure that I have more to talk about... Everything is set for spring break, I leave a week from to today for Amsterdam! I have a midterm the day before I leave (yes, a midterm). I can't stand my professor for that class either- she's a condescending bitch. I know, seems like my kind of person right? Well, wrong.

An update on my flatmates? Sure. I love them. Under normal circumstances I'm sure most of us would not be friends, but we are. I know, a stark contrast from my initial perceptions, however, the other day we had a nice chat about that over lunch at Maggie Jones's (famous restaurant serving traditional English food). Turns out, everyone had feelings very similar to mine. I think we all grew on each other rather quickly, much like the mold I'm sure is growing in our damp, shithole of a building. Oh, by the way, the food was... meh. Good for British food you could say, but British food sucks. As does the weather (I left my traditional rant out earlier, had to slip it in).

Well, big weekend coming up. Tomorrow Brighton, Saturday Greenwich, and Sunday a football match! Who says you can't take a Yank to football?

A Month Already

It's true, I have been physically out of your lives for a month solid. I feel your tears everyday, they fall on me like little drips of sadness. Oh shit, that's rain. And there is my weekly complaint about the god awful weather in this country... now we can move on.

This was a busy week for me, which is my excuse for not writing sooner. For those of you that stalk my blog, my apologies. This past week I visited the Camden Market and Little Venice, both of which would have been amazing had I not been suffering from the early stages of hypothermia. The canal boat tour was gorgeous, but a little, eh.. dry. Much more an event for a more distinguished generation, or those wishing to go to the zoo without driving. Camden on the other hand is so badass even I feel like I need to get cooler before I go back and if I'm saying that... come on. As you can see my ego has not been shaken.

I also went on a daytrip to Oxford. Fantastic day. There is just no other way to describe it. I took more dorky Harry Potter pictures for you crazy people. Apparently I stood on some staircase that somebody stood on and walked through the dining hall where I'm guessing they ate?! People were very excited, so I just copied them. I really think I should read the books. Maybe I should have thought of that before I came.

OH! I saw a play called Six Degrees of Separation- mediocre play but! and this is a major but, it starred Anthony Stewart Head. For those of you that don't know, he played Giles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Anyone who knows me understands that I have an unhealthy obsession with that show, and so seeing him in person was probably the highlight of my existence. Ok, I won't go that far, it's not like I met Jesse McCartney (I've developed an almost creepy obsession with him... I love him).

Once again I had my weekly installment of embarrassment at the Imperial College Union... ugh, let's not get into that. I took the rest of the weekend off to avoid any further poor decision making.

This is the most ADD blog yet.

I booked my spring break trip! AHH! Well, I booked the flights and the first hostel. I will be going to Amsterdam for 5 days and Barcelona for 5 days. It will be amazing. Let's hope I keep the poor decision making to a minimum...

3rd Weeks a Charm

This past week has been crazy fun. Things here are really starting to come together, and I'm adjusting to the fact that I actually live here now. We've had 2 more sunny days! Well, by sunny I mean you can actually see the sun, that's pretty much as good as it gets here. Also, it has only rained almost every day... oh how I love the rain. I love how everything I touch is always wet or damp- who needs things to be dry?

I saw a play called "39 Steps" this past week. Loved it. Loved it. Hilarious play. It is a parody of the Alfred Hitchcock film, but they put in so many allusions to his other movies. Granted, if you haven't seen those movies, you may not enjoy it as much as I did. This was four person cast, playing multiple roles, and seriously one of the most clever things I have ever seen. See it.

Yesterday I went to see Platform 9 3/4 from the Harry Potter books. Really quite anti-climatic for me. Plus, the London transit system raped my Oyster card balance just to get there. Oh London transit and I are not on speaking terms right now. Anyway, so we went to the Harry Potter thing, which I was excited for- even though I've never read the books and don't really enjoy the movies. Why did I waste my money? Good question my friends. I did this for you. Those of you who I know are Harry Potter freaks. Thank me later. Ok, the Harry Potter thing is not the point. After we visited the platform, and took pictures like big dorks, we went to (drumroll please) The British Library! A-mazing. I kid you not. The best part of my trip thus far. Ok, I'll explain. So in the library they have this exhibit of extremely old writings- novels, manuscripts, bibles, the Magna Carta, sacred texts of all different religions. I saw Beowolf, the manuscript of Alice in Wonderland (Alice Underground), Tess of D'Ubervilles (which by the way was originally entitled Daughter of D'Ubervilles, but Hardy crossed it out and wrote Tess), I saw handwritten notes from Virgina Woolf, Sylvia Plath... ugh.. they were the coolest things I've ever seen. THEN, I saw the Beatles exhibit. I stood there listening to Yesterday while reading the handwritten lyrics of Yesterday, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, songs that hadn't been recorded!! Things were scribbled on the backs of scrap paper and things were crossed out and moved and uh! it was the most amazing thing I've ever seen. Hands down the coolest thing I've seen on this trip. It was just... I don't know how to explain it. Fuck you Disney Land- The British Library: Where dreams come true.

Last night was my Historical Pub Walk. All this means is we went to old pubs that we would never have found on our own. Needless to say, it was awesome. Love the extra four ounces and the higher alcohol content. We went to three pubs, all of which were so different from the pubs we usually go to (which all look basically the same anyway). Then, of course, it was Wednesday night, so we went to the Union. Oh the Union, where I embarrass myself on a weekly basis. This time however, my friend Caroline and I managed to meet three guys who play football (they kept saying soccer for our benefit, even though we tried to tell them we knew it was football) and these nice boys asked us if we wanted to go to a club with them, but first they rounded up some more of their friends, aka the entire team. So there we are walking with this group of gorgeous footballers (ok, so the gorgeous part definitely didn't apply to all of them, but it's my story) about to go to this club- and then we find out that there is an hours queue in front, so we turn around (we were only at the bus stop) and walk back to the Union. Apparently, we "gots to go next week." Highly doubt it will happen, but they were fun guys. Great night. Rough morning.

Oh my trip to Windsor! One of the best little towns on the planet. The castle was so beautiful and very interesting. We were given these little audio tour things that told us everything we could possibly want to know. St. George's Cathedral is one of the most gorgeous buildings I've ever been in. I saw where William Shakespeare lived, and at the castle I witnessed a little changing of the guard- btw, not that interesting. They stare at each other for a half hour.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to meet the Queen or William and Harry. Thus Harry and I haven't made any concrete plans for our future nuptials. I had fish and chips (again) at this cute pub and proceeded to get a little tipsy before the walk to Eton College (where both the princes went to school) then Kate and I stopped at a pub on the way back. Best field trip of my life. Our tour guide, Britt, knows everything about everything. EVERYTHING. She is taking us to Camden and Little Venice this Saturday and I can't wait.